Expanding Your Document: A Screen Reader Guide to Footnotes and Endnotes

Creating and Editing Your Notes

To create a footnote, place your cursor exactly where you want the superscript number to appear. This is usually right after a word or punctuation mark with no spaces. Open the upper ribbon by pressing Alt, arrow right to the References tab, and tab to the Insert footnote button. For a much faster route, simply use the shortcut Alt plus S plus F. Word will instantly drop you into the Footnote pane at the bottom of the page, placing your cursor next to a newly created number. Type your note, and when you are finished, use your up or down arrow keys to exit the pane and return to your main text. Be careful not to press Enter or Tab while down there, as that just adds empty lines or awkward spacing inside the footnote itself. If you ever need to edit your notes, you can arrow down to the bottom of the page to find them again. Alternatively, you can open the References tab and use the Show notes button, or the shortcut Alt plus S plus H, to quickly jump into the pane and edit them sequentially.

Navigating and Deleting with Precision

Moving between footnotes in your main text is easy with ribbon shortcuts. Pressing Alt plus S plus O plus N takes you to the next footnote, while Alt plus S plus O plus P takes you to the previous one. If you want to delete a footnote, the main body text is the exact spot to do it. You must delete the superscript number in the main text, rather than deleting the words down in the Footnote pane. Deleting the text in the pane leaves a confusing blank footnote, but deleting the superscript removes the note entirely and automatically renumbers the rest of your document.

For JAWS users, pressing Insert plus Z turns on Quick Keys, allowing you to press O or Shift plus O to jump forward and backward between notes and hear them read aloud. JAWS also offers a Virtual Viewer activated by pressing the Windows key and Semicolon together. From there, you can select Footnotes to see a list of every note in your document and jump straight to their location. NVDA and Narrator do not have these specific quick keys, so relying on the Word ribbon shortcuts is your best option.

Managing Footnote Styles

Your footnotes should visually match the rest of your document. They typically use the same font as your body text but at a slightly smaller size, and they should always remain single spaced. You can verify your current formatting by placing your focus in the Footnote pane and pressing Insert plus F. To permanently change the footnote style, press the Applications key while inside a footnote, choose Styles, and find the Footnote text option. Select Modify, then go to the Format button to open the Font or Paragraph dialog boxes. Once you make your changes and press OK, every footnote in your document will update instantly. You can even assign a custom shortcut key, like Control plus Alt plus F, from that same menu to quickly apply your preferred style anytime a note looks out of place.

Customizing JAWS Feedback

JAWS users can customize exactly how much footnote information is read aloud during standard navigation. Press Insert plus V to open Quick Settings, type the word footnote, and locate the detection options. By pressing the Spacebar, you can cycle through settings like Off, On, On with text, or On plus count. Setting it to On with text is generally the most helpful for reading, but turning detection entirely off can sometimes make editing the bottom of a page less confusing, as it stops the screen reader from blurring the lines between the body text and the footnote pane. NVDA and Narrator simply announce the presence of a footnote reference as you arrow past it, without these extra customization options.

Working with Endnotes

If you prefer endnotes, they work almost exactly the same way. You can insert one using the shortcut Alt plus S plus E, and Word will use lowercase Roman numerals by default. JAWS users can navigate them with Quick Keys by pressing the letter D, or use the Word ribbon shortcuts Alt plus S plus O plus X for the next endnote and Alt plus S plus O plus V for the previous one. If you ever change your mind about your formatting, you can easily convert all your footnotes into endnotes, or vice versa. Just open the Footnote and endnote dialog from the References tab, choose your preferred format, and press the Convert button to switch them instantly.